Vital Forest Graphics

The Amazon, the largest

J he dominant ecozone in the Ama- zon contains tropical rainforest, tropical moist deciduous forest, tropi- cal mountain forest and tropical dry forest. The wettest type of vegetation is found in the upper basin of the Ama- zon River, in the State of Amapà in Brazil and on the west coast of Colom- bia where luxuriant, multilayered ever- green forest grows to heights of up to 50 metres tall (FAO 2001b). The more extensive rainforest vege- tation is somewhat drier and occurs in the Amazon Basin and on the eastern foothills of the central Andes. It con- sists of multilayered forest up to 40 m high, with or without emergent trees, and is mainly evergreen (FAO 2001b). Of the approximately 300 tree species that may be found in a single hectare of rich Amazon rainforest, only 30 to 50 are considered to be of commercial use (Grainger 1993). The Amazon population is mainly urban, but many indigenous groups live in villages deep in the forest. Brazil has 225 indigenous groups, of which 170 live in the Amazon. Some 460 000 indigenous people, or 0.25 per cent of the Brazilian population, live inside

The Amazon Basin, stretching over Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, contains the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and is home to more than 30 million people. It is also an ecosystem with unparalleled rich biodiversity.

580 officially recognized indigenous territories, the majority in the Amazon. These territories represent 13 per cent of the national territory, and more than one fifth of the Brazilian Amazon. The states with the largest number of iso- lated tribes, such as Pará, Mato Grosso and Rondônia, are unfortunately also under growing pressure from defor- estation and together, they accounted for about 85 per cent of Brazil’s total deforestation over the 2006-2007 period (INPE 2008). Over the past 40 years, about a fifth of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has been deforested (Reuters 2008). Official sta- tistics show that annual deforestation has been close to 20 000 square kilo- metres over the last 10 years, reaching a peak of 27 429 square kilometers in 2004, and then being reduced annu- ally to 11 224 square kilometers in 2007 (INPE 2008). The most obvious reason for defor- estation is the conversion of forest lands for cattle ranching and agricultural crops, industrial activities and logging for timber. Transportation infrastruct- ure has been linked to aggressive and rapid change in land use, with new roads

Deforestation causes in Brazil

Large-scale commercial agriculture

Logging

Small-scale subsistance agriculture

Fires, dams, urbanization, roads, mining

Cattle ranches

Source: Mongabay.com

Socio-economic indicators for the Legal Amazon region in 2004

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44 VITAL FOREST GRAPHICS